News

King Khalid University intends to establish and operate a ground station to connect and track satellites, leading at the level of Saudi universities as the first of its kind, and to launch the Educational Cube Satellite Project, which started back in 2022 in collaboration with the Saudi Amateur Radio Society. The university aims to enrich the knowledge of students and society as a whole, to raise their awareness on space science, and to train students on space science technologies, with whatever benefits the kingdom in this field.

The president of the Saudi Amateur Radio Society, His Royal Highness, Prince Bader bin Al-Faisal Al-Saud, alongside his delegation during his visit to the College of Engineering at King Khalid University, has praised cooperation between the university and the society. The visit aimed to examine the radio telescope station and confirm its working conditions, a telescope that launched recently as part of a project by the Amateur Radio Society at university cities in the kingdom. The Dean of the College of Engineering, Prof. Mohammad Khalofa Al-Mosfer attended the meeting, which was held yesterday, alongside many faculty members and students interested in the fields of space science and wireless communication from the Colleges of Engineering, Science, and Computer Science. 

His Royal Highness affirmed that discussing the establishment and operation of a ground station to connect to satellites and track them at the university is a vital first step before launching educational and research satellites. He adds, according to the cooperation agreement between the society and King Khalid University, the society will equip the university with the first ground station for satellite tracking and connection on the level of Saudi universities. 

His Royal Highness confirmed that the society, represented by the Satellites committee, would train students on how to track the Radio Amateur satellites and educational satellites. They will also learn how to build station antennas, and use tracking and simulation applications, through which students and academics can run experiments on station equipment manufacturing and development, and to recognize and simulate satellites' systems and orbit.

The society had previously built and launched a radio telescope at King Khalid University to assist interested students and academics, and introduce them to the galaxy's wireless frequencies and its components, and to conduct scientific research with minimum costs supported by national industry in collaboration with interested people, his Royal Highness explained. He affirms that this prototype marks the launch of scientific research in all specialties, which will offer an exceptional and advanced product, opening the door for universities to collaborate with the society to establish national companies, capable of competing against international counterparts in the field, in turn, creating many job opportunities for students.  

The national project, launched by the society, will create valuable scientific opportunities for interested people, his Royal Highness explained. Around 900 scientific research papers in many fields will be available; research on Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Artificial intelligence, communication, and many other fields. These resources will mark an exceptional leap in the design and development of radio telescopes, considering how sparse scientific research in the field is.  

On his end, the Dean of The College of Engineering, Prof. Mohammad Khalofa Al-Mosfer explained, the university and the society are striving to strengthen cooperation in the academic, scientific, and research fields. As well as in the fields of training, culture, and development; to enable cooperation in wireless communication, radio astronomy, satellite stations, coding and designing (CubeSat) satellites, and organizing joint workshops in the field of communication.